


What's with Leslie?

by Sarcastic_Soulmate



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Depression, F/M, Heartbreak, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23970814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarcastic_Soulmate/pseuds/Sarcastic_Soulmate
Summary: POVs during Ben and Leslie's breakup leading up to their reconciliation.
Relationships: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	1. April's Concern

**Author's Note:**

> This could just be one chapter, or I could add some, but I'm really not sure so I would love some suggestions. :)

I didn't know what was going on with Leslie. No one did. We all knew something was up, though. It must have hurt her a lot, she never talked about it or even tried to address it. She wasn't fooling anyone. She's depressed, something must have happened. 

I like Leslie. I hate basically everyone else. Except Andy, which is why I felt so bad for her. 

Leslie is hiding it well, I have to admit. But I've known her for years. We all have. She may think that we don't notice the too-bright smiles that never reach her eyes, and the walls that she so carefully but quickly put up.

We made it our unspoken mission to help Leslie. We bring her coffee and waffles often, but not too often where it seems suspicious. She hasn't completely changed though, fortunately. Once, I brought her waffles, and she tried to hug me. When she leaves the room, we all share a knowing look. Me, Andy (sometimes), Donna, Tom, sometimes even Ron and Jerry. (I know, ew Jerry.) I think Ron knows what's going on, though. Can't say why, I just have a feeling.

Dark places are awesome, but it's not a good look coming from Leslie. I hate positivity, but I like her. She's pretty much my best friend, though I'd never tell her that. I don't like change. So when her positivity dwindled a bit, it felt weird.

We'd all like to say that she won't be like this for long, and that she'll bounce back soon, but it's been months.

// 

Today, when Leslie left the room for a few minutes, we talked about it. 

"Our girl's different. I don't like the change. Something's wrong." Donna says.

"It must have hit her pretty hard though, she doesn't even want to talk about it." Jerry replies. 

"Ew, shut up Jerry." I reply. It's pretty much an automatic response, I wasn't even listening to what he said. But it was probably lame. I mean, it's Jerry.

"I hate to say this, but he's right. She's always been the type who loves talking to people about feelings and thoughts." Donna responds. 

"Maybe it's some sort of secret." Andy offers. 

"What do you mean?" I said.

"I don't know, maybe she can't tell anyone about it because talking about it will rat herself out for something she did." Andy continued.

"That actually might be it." Tom answers, with a surprised look on his face. 

"Really? I was just guessing. But if it's true, then Burt Macklin is on the case." He whips out his shades from out of nowhere and puts them on.

"How do you do that?" Tom asks. "I mean seriously. I need some baller ideas to wow Jean-Ralphio for a new business idea I had." 

"Ew, shut up Tom, no one cares about your business. Go be lame somewhere else." I say.

"But it's Leslie we're talking about. She's not one to break rules." Jerry says. 

"Which would give her an even bigger reason to keep whatever happened a secret." Donna counters.

"Can't argue with that." Tom adds.

Ron walked out of his office and chimed in. "Don't you guys have anything better to do then to gossip about Leslie?" 

"You're just saying that because you know what's going on with her." I cross my arms and narrow my eyes.

"He does?" Tom asks incredulously. 

"It's obvious." 

"How? I wouldn't care either way." 

"Ron, I know you pride yourself in being some kind of swag, stoic person, but you do care." Tom responds.

"What the hell is swag, and why are you associating me with it?" Ron retorted. 

"Give up, Tom. We'll never get anywhere with him." Donna says, with more than a hint of exasperation. 

"Come on, Ron, what's her secret?" Tom begs.

"Whatever her secret is is no business of yours." Ron answers.

"So there is a secret." I say. "And you just admitted that you know what it is." 

"No I didn't." 

"Yes, you did." I say, narrowing my eyes and glaring at him once again. 

We probably would have gotten somewhere, but then Leslie walked back in and we all fell silent.

"Hey everyone!" Leslie says, again, with a little too much enthusiasm.

Ron glares at each of us and then walks back into his office. 

"What were you talking about?" Leslie asks, tilting her head a bit.

"Nothing, Leslie." Jerry replies, smiling.

"But Ron seemed kind of mad. Then again, he's Ron. " Leslie says. 

I hear footsteps behind me.

"Hey everyone." Ben says. Ew, Ben.

Leslie quickly walks to her office. I see Ron in my peripheral vision looking at her with concern.

Ben has a brief look of sadness as she walks off.

'Interesting,' I think.


	2. Donna's Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donna contemplating Leslie's behavior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need mental help. Also I apologize if I didn't write Donna spot-on.

Secrets are awesome. At least, being part of one is. And none of us were in the loop. 

Ron seemed kind of annoyed that we kept talking about Leslie, and I guess we can't blame him. It's not like he's mad about us not doing work; he's just sick of us always talking about it. 

Andy suggested that maybe it's a secret that she can't reveal or it will do more harm than good, and I think he's right. Like I said, our girl's different, and I don't like the change. 

But what kind of secret could it be? She's not someone who breaks rules, which is all the more reason to cover up whatever's going on. Or maybe it's something personal? Who knows? Well, Ron does.

April's right, he does seem to know. And he sort of admitted it earlier. But then Leslie walked in, and we couldn't question him further. 

She walked away after Ben came in, which is weird. I don't know what to say about that. It's probably nothing though, just a coincidence. 

We talked about it again, when Ron and Leslie were both out of the room doing god-knows-what. 

"What do you think the secret is?" I asked.

"Who knows? Hey, did anyone notice how she kind of left when Ben came in?" April replied.

"Yeah, but it's probably nothing." I say. 

"I'm not sure. I thought I saw Ron looking at her when it happened." 

"You saw that too?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, it was weird. But enough about lame Ben." April rolled her eyes.

"Yeah," Tom agreed.

"Did any of you help her earlier?" I ask.

"I brought her coffee!" Andy offers, beaming.

"She's hiding it well. God, I want to know the secret so bad." Tom whines. 

"For your sake or for hers?" Ron chips in from his office. How did he get in there? He was gone a minute ago....

Tom's silent. I hate to say this because of everything that's happened, but Ron is right. Tom seems more interested in knowing what it is than actually making Leslie feel better. But who knows?

"Ron, stop torturing him." I say. 

"I'm not, it was a simple question." He closes his office door.

Leslie walks back in after that. 

"Hey Leslie! Do you need anything?" Andy smiles.

I watch as Leslie narrows her eyes a little bit. Who can blame her? It is a little suspicious. "Nope, everything's great!" She walks back into her office.

We all sort of disperse after that. We don't want Leslie to overhear. 

Maybe we should stop talking about what's going on with Leslie. We seem to talk more about it then actually do anything about it. But then again, what can we do when we don't know what the problem is? 

I miss the old Leslie. And the worst part? She's technically not really acting all that much different, but it's what she isn't doing, what she isn't saying that we're noticing.

And this is a time where she should be on cloud nine, with her campaign and her job and everything. I'm just really worried about her. 

What if we were all just paranoid and nothing is going on with her? Maybe she's just a little overwhelmed at times and we're making it into a big thing. 

But then, the more I think about it, the more I know that that isn't it. She wouldn't be overwhelmed because she would be happy to have a mass amount of work to do. 

So what could it be?


	3. Ron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron is concerned about Leslie, but doesn't want to admit it.

As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm concerned about Leslie. She's not her usual self, and I'm not a fan of change. I don't like having to get used to new things happening, it implies that I care about things. 

I'm concerned, but I'm still annoyed that the Parks Department kept gossiping about it. As if it's their problem, their secret to deal with. It just seems a little selfish, that they know she's going through a difficult time and all they seem to care about is wanting to know what it is. There's so many better things to do too. Hand craft some canoes, go shopping at Food 'n Stuff, anything else.

I've seen them bringing her waffles and trying to make her happy, so I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. I also hate being wrong, so there's that.

I would never tell her this, but I was somewhat pleased that she had found someone who looked at her like she was everything that was so very precious to him. It was pretty pathetic actually, the lovesick glances even before they were dating. But it's all water under the bridge.

People think that "the one" is the person they will be with forever and never stop loving. While they may never stop loving them, I'm annoyed by the amount of people who don't realize that you don't always end up with "the one" even if you know who that is. I hate using a cliché such as that, but it's true. Not everyone's life is a perfect fairy tale where people get through their problems to have this happily ever after.

April would agree that their awkward moments before they were together were pretty hilarious. Not that we were constantly paying attention to them.

I'm not interested in caring about people, and I don't, for the most part. But I've known her a long time, she's wormed her way into my heart, and even though it annoys me, it's accurate.

April and Donna and everyone else have been talking about Leslie a lot lately. Problem is, their meaningless conversation isn't doing anything to get rid of her pain and make her feel better, and they're not figuring anything out either. I thought maybe they would eventually notice how Leslie and Ben have been avoiding each other like the plague, but they aren't the most perceptive people in the world.

In a way, something has to give soon. Something big is going to happen, and since I don't like change, it's going to piss me off. More importantly, I don't know whether it's going to be good or bad or both at the same time.

I would rather drink whiskey and make more ducks out of wood and pretend to be working than think about this, but I don't want to see her get hurt. 

It's too late for that now, though. 

Her smiles are fake and she's throwing herself into her work to distract herself, although it's probably doing the opposite. She's even busier than ever, and she's stretching herself really thin. She's helping her friends, working on her campaign, and getting Parks Department work done too. She's a force not to be reckoned with, and as painful as it is to watch, I respect it. 

Thinking about it from her view, it's probably really disappointing that she's always there for her friends, and her friends can't be there for her during this difficult time. Not because they don't want to help, but because it's something she can't talk about.

One of them is going to break, and it will be disastrous. I guess I can try to help Leslie, only because I don't want her to break and hear everyone talking about it.

Yep, that's the only reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the chapter title is such a Ron thing to put. Also sorry if I didn't nail the Ron voice.


	4. "Whatever damn thing you need, we're here."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A collection of POVs when Leslie and Ben tell the Parks Department about their relationship before they go to meet with Chris. Set just before S04E09, 'The Trial of Leslie Knope'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meep. I may or may not have written some of this at 4am.... 
> 
> Yes, I realize I suck at writing. Shhhhhhhh xD.

Leslie took Ben's hand as they walked into the Parks Department. "Everyone?" She called out nervously. No one reacted. Typical. 

"Everyone, get in here, now!" She yelled and Ben flinched. Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Donna came out first. April was close behind as Tom sprinted out. Ron walked out of his office but stayed in the back of the area. Andy was sitting in the conference room playing with.... jello? He walked out, still playing with it. She would have to ask him about that later. Or maybe not. Sometimes it's best to not get involved. 

"Is there drama?" Donna asks excitedly. She always liked to hear hot gossip, though she wasn't sure how hot it would be if it was coming from them. 

"Maybe." Leslie smiles.

"Why are you two holding hands? Are you sleeping together?" Donna asks, her eyes wide with curiosity. 

"How would you feel if we said we were breaking the rules?" Leslie smiles.

"We wouldn't believe you." April replies, looking around the room, having already lost interest in the situation.

"Well, joke's on you." Ben smiled, with a hint of nervousness from having to go talk to Chris soon. 

"What?" Jerry called. Funny, they didn't notice he was there. 

"Chris has a rule restricting government relationships. Ben and I dated back in the spring, but we broke up because of the campaign." She avoids contact with Ben after she says that. 

"But we decided to screw it all because we couldn't handle it anymore." He said as he gazed lovingly at Leslie and rubbed his thumb over her knuckle.

"But what about Chris?" April and Donna ask simultaneously, making Tom chuckle. April's very interested now. Her attention is on them as they continue their story.

"We're going to meet with him in a few minutes, but we wanted to tell you first, because there are some potential.... consequences." Leslie answers anxiously. 

Ben let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist comfortingly. Ron's eyes slightly narrow at that, but the room is silent. 

"What kind of consequences?" Jerry asks. 

"Ben could get fired, or I could get fired, or we could both get fired. We would both have trouble getting back into government, and it would ruin my campaign." She answers sullenly, with almost no emotion, which terrified Ben. 

"But no matter what happens, we will all have each other." Ben adds, holding her even tighter.

"Ew, Ben. Lame much?" April rolls her eyes. Andy is still messing with his red jello, repeatedly sticking his finger in the container.

Ben runs his hand through his hair in exasperation. "Why do I live with you two again?" 

"Speaking of, Andy, what are you doing?" Leslie asks. 

"Playing with my jello." 

She gives him a look. 

"Well, what else am I supposed to do with it?" Andy asks, genuinely curious.

"I don't know, eat it?" Leslie replies. 

Andy's face lights up as if he never considered that possibility and then starts gobbling it up with his hands. 

"So, what now?" Ben asks no one in particular. 

Ron speaks up. "Whatever damn thing you need, we're here." 

Leslie smiles. "Thanks, Ron." 

He nods, and they walk out of the room, hand in hand. 

He can only imagine what the outcome will be.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh I forgot to remind you, call a mental hospital.


End file.
